2014-15
RIDDHI FOUNDATION
ANNUAL REPORT
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Contents
President Speaks ................................................................................................................... 3
Board of Directors ................................................................................................................. 4
1. Overview ........................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Human Resources ............................................................................................................ 5
1.2 Collaboration with other organizations .......................................................................... 6
2. Experiences of Riddhi Foundation .................................................................................... 6
3. Operational Area ............................................................................................................... 7
4. New Activities taken up during 2014-15 .......................................................................... 8
4.1 Rural Governance ............................................................................................................ 8
4.2 Research & Studies ......................................................................................................... 9
5. Activities from previous years that are still continuing ................................................ 10
5.1 Maternal & Child Health and Nutrition ...................................................................... 10
5.2 WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) .......................................................................... 15
5.3 Poverty Alleviation ........................................................................................................ 18
6. Future Initiatives/Upcoming Activities .......................................................................... 19
6.1 WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) .......................................................................... 19
6.2 Nutrition ........................................................................................................................ 21
6.3 Research ........................................................................................................................ 22
7. Financial Statistics ......................................................................................................... 23
8. Photo Gallery................................................................................................................... 27
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President Speaks
n recent years, there has been more emphasis on improving the
basic services to the citizen and Government at Union & State
level are implementing several flagship programmes. The local
governments are also being given more responsibilities in providing
supports in implementing the programmes, which requires building
their capacities for discharging their responsibilities. Realizing that the governments at
centre, state and local levels alone cannot meet the challenges of the massive tasks in
the process of development, the non-profit, voluntary and non-governmental
organizations are getting more involved in different phases of implementation and
monitoring & evaluation of such programmes.
Riddhi Foundation works as a not-for-profit organization with the motto of supporting
government initiatives in various fields of socio-economic development with its
expertise. It is a great privilege for us to present the Annual Report 2014-15 as part of
our annual review and for wider dissemination of the achievements of the last Financial
Year. The year 2014-15 was vital from many aspects. During this one year, Riddhi
Foundation has contributed towards the field of development with its various activities
– starting from the Study of Tradable Bio-Resources of West Bengal, Analysis of
physical and financial progress of implementation of Swachha Bharat Mission in the
State of Maharashtra, to monitoring and analysis of nutritional status of the mother
and children with the support of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) in the
state of Kerala and Tripura. It has also assisted the State Finance Commission of Bihar
in capturing status of functioning of the local governments in both rural and urban
areas.
Much of what we have achieved this year is due to the continued support of all the
Partners and well wishers. Therefore, I would take this opportunity to extend my
heartfelt gratitude to all our partners, well-wishers and my colleagues.
Dr. M. N. Roy
I
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Board of Directors
Dr. M. N. Roy, President
Shri Parthapratim Sengupta, Vice President
Shri Tapan Kumar Majumdar, Secretary
Ms. Ananya Das, Assistant Secretary
Shri Saktipada Ghosh, Treasurer
Shri Kamal Kumar Pal, Member
Dr. (Mrs) Anjali Roy, Member
Mrs Anita Sengupta, Member
Shri Subhasis Deb, Member
REGISTERED OFFICE IB-190, 2nd Floor,
Salt Lake City, Sector III
Kolkata: 700106, West Bengal, India
Tel: (033) 2335 7531
Fax: (033) 23348097
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.riddhifoundation.org
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1. Overview
Riddhi Foundation is registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961.
The organization was earlier known as Riddhi Uddalak, which was formed in the year
2004-05 and the name was changed to Riddhi Foundation on 22nd July 2013. It has a
field office at Aurangabad, Maharashtra. It provides consultancy services to government
and non-government organizations in the field of monitoring and evaluation and takes
up research works and studies related to various aspects of socio-economic
development and implementation of related programmes. It has expertise in the field of
data analysis, particularly in the field of poverty alleviation, health, nutrition, water &
sanitation, environment etc. for helping decision support to government or other
organizations implementing schemes in these sectors. It provides one-stop solution for
all monitoring and evaluation requirement of government and non-government
organizations. The Riddhi Foundation also works for improving governance including
that for urban and rural local bodies, through application of electronic technology and
use of Geographic Information System (GIS) etc. The organization has implemented/in
the process of implementing several projects in the said field for UN organizations like
UNICEF; Institutions like Institute of Health Management & Research (IIHMR), National
Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat (NIRD&P); Non-Government
Organization like the Child In Need Institute and Terre des homes and State
Governments like the Government of West Bengal (West Bengal Biodiversity Board),
Government of Kerala, Government of Bihar (Bihar State Finance Commission),
Government of Maharashtra and Government of Tripura. Riddhi Foundation is
presently headed by Dr. M. N. Roy, who held key positions in the Government, during
his career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) spanning over more than three
decades. Details of the works taken up for these organizations are available at
www.riddhifoundation.org.
1.1 Human Resources
Riddhi Foundation is headed by Dr M. N. Roy, who retired from the Indian
Administrative Service in the year 2012 as Additional Chief Secretary to the
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Government of West Bengal. He is assisted by a team of professionals including a
couple of other retired IAS officers in the field of governance; economist, sociologist,
nutrition specialist, public health expert, sanitation experts, livelihood specialist, data
management experts, etc.
Riddhi Foundation has collaboration with Riddhi Management Services Pvt. Limited
(RMSPL), which is an ISO-certified company, incorporated in 1992 in West Bengal
under Indian Companies Act 1956. RMSPL has specialization in the field of Web based
application and development of related software and decision support tools which are
simple to use. Technology developed by RMSPL is being widely used and it was the
Technical Partner of the Registrar General of India, Ministry of Home Affairs;
Government of India for Census GIS India 2001 for developing a web based GIS (in
WhizMap™), which encompasses the expansive database of Census of India through
WhizMap™ from the State level of India to sub-district level. Riddhi Foundation gets all
their ICT related works implemented in collaboration with RMSPL.
1.2 Collaboration with other organizations
Riddhi Foundation, as a policy, maintains a small group of core professionals and takes
up assignment in collaboration with other professional organizations. At present, it has
collaboration with National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) as their technology
partner for GIS based applications. It has collaboration with Institute of Development
Studies, Kolkata, a reputed institute in the field of socio-economic development for
taking up research works together and with Business Brio, a Kolkata based
organization, which has specialization in economic survey and analysis. Riddhi
Foundation has also entered in to collaboration with Ernst & Young to work together in
the field of capacity development for the Panchayats.
2. Experiences of Riddhi Foundation
Riddhi Foundation has the experience of handling large volume of data and analysing
the same and also to develop web-based application including GIS for presenting of the
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analysis. The organization analyses data related to MGNREGS for all the districts of the
country and the same is presented as thematic maps through a link on GIS the website
for implementation of the MGNREGS (www.nrega.nic.in). Riddhi Foundation has also
been assisting the Government of Maharashtra, with support of UNICEF, in analysing
performances under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Aurangabad division of the state
and giving feedback to the implementing officials after due analysis for various
interventions in reaching the goal of making the Division, which is the most backward
in this respect, free from open defecation. It is also engaged in monitoring ICDS
programmes (in Tripura) and also tracking every child & expecting/lactating mother to
capture the RCH and nutrition related services being received by them and also
monitoring the status of nutrition (all the three dimensions of malnutrition viz. wasting,
under-weight and stunting) in Attappady block of Palakkad district Kerala. The
organization is also specialized in real time data capturing using mobile telephony and
displaying the same for asset mapping/creation of assets through different
programmes. All the assets being created in Wayanad districts of Kerala are being
mapped in a collaborative project with the NIRD&P. It has also in the process of
developing web-enabled GIS maps of the Gram Panchayats of the districts of Kerala in
collaboration with the NIRD&P. Bihar State Finance Commission has to get feedback on
various issues related to functioning of the Panchayats and Municipalities, total
number of which will be around 9,000. Riddhi Foundation is now engaged in designing
a web enabled data capturing tool so that all the feedbacks are captured and analysed
promptly for use by the Commission. The organization has also capability of conducting
field survey related to various socio-economic and management of natural resources. It
is also engaged in conducting a field study for identifying and quantifying the tradable
bio-resources of West Bengal for the West Bengal Bio Diversity Board.
3. Operational Area
Riddhi Foundation is working in the states of Maharashtra,
Tripura, Bihar, Kerala and West Bengal with State Governments
and Non-Government Organizations.
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4. New Activities taken up during 2014-15
4.1 Rural Governance
(i) Geoinformatics based GP Boundary for Planning and Monitoring of RD
Programmes including MGNREGS in Kerala
Partner: NIRD & Panchayat
Riddhi Foundation in association with National Institute of Rural Development and
Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) remained engaged in preparing digital maps of the Gram
Panchayats of Kerala. This will help to develop web based applications for better use of
ICT and GIS in planning and implementation activities of the Gram Panchayats. The
project is still continuing.
(ii) Studies on the effects of ingression of sea water in selected 56 villages of the
Sunderbans of West Bengal, Phase I:
Partner: Vivekananda Institute of Biotechnology, Nimpeeth
Riddhi Foundation is also in the process of developing a system for capturing various
attributes of ground water and the depth of the water table at certain fixed locations in
Sundarbans over a long period. This is being done for Vivekananda Institute of
Biotechnology, Nimpeeth.
(iii) Web-Based Data Entry for Compilation of Responses to Questionnaire of the
Fifth Bihar SFC to the Panchayats of the State
Partner: Fifth Bihar State Finance Commission
The system is hosted at http://biharsfc.org
Riddhi Foundation has capability of designing and developing various web-based
systems for data capturing, displaying the outcomes through dashboard and mobile
applications for capturing data and showing the analyses on the dashboard. Mobile
telephony can be used for conducting field survey for faster capturing and analysis of
data. Most of the projects undertaken by Riddhi Foundation are based on this
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framework. One of the ongoing projects in this field is the designing and development of
a web-based data entry module for compilation of responses to questionnaire of
the 5th Bihar SFC to the Panchayats of the state. The 5th SFC has decided to develop
web-enabled questionnaires which will be accessed through internet by the local
governments and enter relevant information on their functioning. In this mode it will be
lot easier and faster to compile the answers of the questionnaires and the same will also
have lesser chances of errors. Five different web enabled questionnaires have been
developed for that purpose. Under the Rural module, there are four questionnaires
related to functioning of Gram Kachari, Gram Panchayats & Panchayat Samiti and Zilla
Parishads. Apart from the rural local bodies, another module for urban local bodies has
been developed. Riddhi Foundation has been entrusted with the responsibility of
development of the web enabled data entry system, which is nearing completion. The
system provides the following services:
Designing, installing and maintaining the system.
Providing support in case there is any problem of data entry.
Designing the relational database management system (RDBMS) for capturing the
responses.
Deploying the software at Fifth Bihar SFC‟s server.
Orientation of the Government officials and the Panchayat/Municipal
functionaries
4.2 Research & Studies
Riddhi Foundation has a team of expert professionals for conducting research on
various socio-economic issues with specialization in the field of public health, nutrition,
water and sanitation, poverty alleviation, local governance and on environment &
biodiversity management.
(i) Study on Tradable Bio Resources in West Bengal
Partner: West Bengal State Biodiversity Board
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West Bengal State Biodiversity Board implemented the first Global Environment Facility
(GEF) project, “Strengthening the implementation of the Biological Diversity Act and
Rules with focus on its Access and Benefit Sharing Provisions” under the guidance of
National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) with the support of United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP) and the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), Government of
India. Riddhi Foundation, in association with Business Brio conducted the study on
tradable bio- resources of West Bengal for the State Biodiversity Board. The objective
was to get an overview of various bio-resources of the state which are being traded by
various bio-resource based industries (Like herbal industries, forest based industries,
Agriculture based industries etc) in the state with special focus on those bio-resources
which are not included in the “Normally traded Commodity List” as notified by Govt. of
India under sction-40 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Riddhi Foundation, in
collaboration with Business Brio has identified and assessed the volumes of those bio-
resources in West Bengal and their economic potential in order to promote their
conservation, sustainable use and piloting ABS mechanism. Extensive field visits and
surveys were conducted in all the districts of the state from the related sources.
Primary data and secondary data have been collected, categorized and analysed
critically to draw logical conclusion. The final report has been shared with the West
Bengal State Biodiversity Board. The project ended in February‟2015.
5. Activities from previous years that are still continuing
5.1 Maternal & Child Health and Nutrition
Riddhi Foundation has developed a number of web-enabled systems with GIS backbone
for capturing real-time data on the service delivery towards pregnant women and
children. A pregnant woman is tracked from her conception up to the completion of her
post-natal services, while tracking of each child is done from birth till the age of five
years. Systems are developed with a combination of mobile telephony (using Android
OS) and web-server based programs. The systems proved to be crucial in tracking the
delivery of services throughout this period and sending alarms/alerts through mobile
notifications to the health workers for delivery of timely services to mothers and
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children. The mother-child dyad systems aim to ensure Real Time, clean and validated
data capturing. The objective is to minimize chances of missing out any health care or
nutrition service to a mother or child. The ultimate goal is to reduce the incidences of
morbidity, mortality and malnutrition.
(i) Combating Child Mortality, Morbidity and Malnutrition in Attappady Block of
Kerala using mobile and GIS technology
The systems are hosted at: http://kerala.jananiseva.org (Janani),
http://jatak.sun.net.in (Jatak)
Partners: Social Justice Department, Government of Kerala, NIRD & UNICEF
Applications developed: 1. Janani 2. Jatak
The work has been taken up in the year 2013-14 as a collaborative project among
UNICEF, Govt. of Kerala, NIRD and Riddhi Foundation. The project at Attappady is
driven by two related software packages developed by Riddhi Foundation (RF), known
as Janani and Jatak respectively. The systems are web-enabled and have GIS
backbone to capture and analyse spatial data, which helps to know the location of any
incident or intervention. The first one is to monitor reproductive & child health care and
the second one is to monitor child growth and management of Nutrition Rehabilitation
Centres (NRC) respectively and both the systems are in use at Attappady. The systems
analyse data for each unit of service delivery (ICDS centre/Health Centre) and every
local government (Panchayat), so that performances can be compared across facilities
and local governments, apart from knowing status of every (pregnant/lactating) mother
and child (below 5 years), which helps (i) better accountability of the field workers of a
particular facility and (ii) participation of local governments in improving health &
nutrition. Thus the systems help all the field officials as well as managers and policy
makers concerned to easily visualize the coverage of service deliveries, the deficiencies
and guide them to ensure 100% coverage of services and also to monitor outcome of the
services by monitoring critical health parameters of the pregnant and lactating women
and status of all the three dimensions of nutrition, i.e., wasting, under weight and
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stunting. Both aggregated as well as disaggregated information up to individual mother
or child can be easily viewed in the dashboards, which are available in the websites, for
knowing the gap in service deliveries or failures for taking corrective measures. Field
officials are notified with urgent information effortlessly to guide them in serving the
mothers and children better. The project is implemented along with Riddhi
Management Services (RMS).
Jatak:
Jatak is a system for growth monitoring of children (under-5) on real time basis,
through mobile telephony (voice file, picture and location) and server based programme
(with a GIS backbone). It was launched at Attappady on 6th January, 2014 and is fully
operational. Data entry has been done for all children, including name, ID and date of
birth of children, and thereafter only weight and height data are captured every month
and entered in to the
system. The same is read
over using the mobile
phone and the voice data
is transcribed for entering
the data in to the system.
The system works out the
status of malnutrition in
all the three dimensions;
i.e., under weight,
stunting and wasting and suitable displayed. The system sends early warning (as alert
notification through mobile) to the concerned functionaries for further follow up based
on WHO protocol about each child whose growth is found to be faltering.Weight and
length/height of all under-5 children are being taken by JPHNs along with AWWs and
sent to JATAK server. The server in turn identifies all three anthropometric nutritional
status indicators; all identified SAM children are further screened within 15 days with
at least once in PHCs. Thereafter, their nutritional status (wasting) is checked
fortnightly till they improve. All children are measured every month by the Anganwadi
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Workers. The information is shared with
JPHNs, who in turn, sends the data to Jatak
Server.
Janani: Janani, a mother-child dyad care system, is a
combination of mobile telephony and web-
server based program especially developed for
frontline health workers to help them deliver
timely and quality ante-natal and post-natal
services to pregnant women and children.
Janani aims to ensure Real Time, clean and
validated data capturing. The objective is to
minimize chances of missing out any health
care service to a mother or child.
The key components of the Janani-Jatak
systems are the following:
1. Tracking health of pregnant women
(from reported conception till 42 days
after delivery) to be done by the JPHN
and other health workers
2. Immunization of the children by the
JPHN and other health workers
3. Illness reporting and monitoring of
mother till the PNC and children till 2
years of age, which will be primarily
done by the JPHNs on SOS basis
4. Growth monitoring of all children on
monthly basis
Status and action taken
As on 30.12.14, 5117 under-5 children
have been brought under the
surveillance program, out of which,
record of weight & length/height of 4,294
children have been captured and
analysed. This includes children up to 5
years who were found within the block
through a baseline survey conducted at
the beginning of the project and those
who were born and captured through the
Janani system. Weight along with
length/height of all children is to be
measured every month by the
Anganwadi Worker (AWW) and the data
has to be fed into the Jatak for analysis
and bringing out the list of children who
have growth faltering. Those who are
found SAM/MAM are to be examined by
the JPHN and, if required, the child has
to be taken to the NRC for examination
by the Medical Officer (MO) and
deserving children are to be stabilized in
the NRC. There are three NRCs located
in CHC/PHCs within each Grama
Panchayat (GP). A programme, called
Community-based management of SAM
children (C-SAM) was to manage
stabilized SAM and MAM at the
community level with support of the
health officials. Such children are fed six
times a day as per prescription of the
MO of the NRC and their growth has to
be monitored by the JPHN every 15 days
for SAM and every 30 days for MAM
children. There is a separate software
module, known as the NRC module to
capture and analyse growth of
SAM/MAM children and the same was
put to use from December 2014.
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The C-SAM Program under Jatak
An initiative at the community level, called Community-based management of SAM
children (C-SAM), has been
taken towards the management
and treatment of the identified
SAM/MAM/SUW children in
Attappady area. The programme
is to manage the stabilized SAM
and MAM children at the
community level with support of
the health officials. Such
children are to be fed six times
a day as per prescription of the
MO of the NRC and their growth has to be monitored by the JPHN every 15 days for
SAM and every 30 days for MAM children by visiting them in their homes. There is a
separate software module, known as the NRC module to capture and analyse growth of
SAM/MAM children and the same has been put to use from December 2014.
Based on specific calorie requirements for each child, treatment plan comprising of
extra diet (nutrimix and energy dense therapeutic food) and medicines is customized
and the SAM and MAM children are treated at the community level. The C-SAM
programme helps to make the community aware about malnutrition and identify
SAM/MAM children, who are treated under the programme. Furthermore, SAM children
identified with medical complications are sent to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres
(NRCs), along with their mothers, where they are treated and the mothers are imparted
nutrition education and good feeding practices. During her stay at the NRC, the child
is weighed daily intervals and is supported with a diet plan consisting of six feeds per
day, out of which three are NRC mix (prepared by mixing nutrimix, milk and coconut
oil), one egg and two regular feeds provided by the Anganwadi centre.
Status
As reported, up to August’14, out of 215 total
beneficiaries, 212 children (86 SAM and 90 MAM) have
been admitted to the NRCs of Attappady (103 at Agali, 85
at Pudur and 43 at Sholayur GPs). Weight gain of the
children admitted at the NRCs rendered a positive impact
on the community which has been implied by the fact that
many children from outside Attappady block (including
children from adjacent states) have been admitted and
treated at the NRCs (36 such cases have been reported).
Apart from that, about 299 children have been included
in the community level feeding programme from all the
three GPs.
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5.2 WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene)
Riddhi Foundation along with RMS has developed a system for monitoring and analysis
of various performance indicators related to WASH. Another system has been developed
for specifically monitoring the implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM,
earlier known as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan), which analyzes the monthly progress up to
block level and display output in thematic maps. The systems also make analysis on
achievements across different social categories. Demographic features and social
composition of the areas are also available in different layers which allow comparing
progress against social composition of the area as per census 2011 as one of the
indicators. Thematic maps are generated for visualising the progress and hindrance
spatially.
An important feature of the system is to make the monitoring more evidence based, and
thus the scope of work has been extended to GPs by developing an ICT based pilot
system for Real Time monitoring of construction of individual toilets. Photographs and
other attributes for each toilet are being captured on a real-time basis using Android
run mobile phones. Mobile application and high resolution map for viewing objects up
to household level have been developed to capture and display photographs/data on
construction of IHHLs from the field on a real time basis.
(i) Accelerating Access to Household Sanitation in the Aurangabad Division
through Strengthened Monitoring by Evidence Based Performance Analysis and
Building Institutional Capacities
Partner: UNICEF, Maharashtra
Intervention Area: 76 Blocks of Aurangabad districts of Maharashtra
Phase-I
The project had three broad components. The first component was to understand
the bottlenecks along with possible interventions in removing the same. The second
component was to put in place a strong system of monitoring activities being
performed or not being performed and the last one was of understanding the reasons
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behind failure for taking corrective measures by all tiers of government. The
monitoring was based on evidence of actual progress of different components of the
NBA and the status of progress with possible analysis available in the public domain so
that everyone from officials engaged in implementation in the programme to any citizen
can view the same. The status related to Blocks and if possible up to Gram Panchayats
was to be displayed for not only allowing everyone to see but to also compare with
performances of other similar units to bring competitiveness in performance.
The Management Information System (MIS) captures all the important parameters,
analyses the same and displays in the website. It provides easy visualization of
progresses under NBA in all the blocks of Aurangabad division of Maharashtra in the
website. The system also helps in assessing the shortfall in pace of progress in respect
of AIP GPs. The thematic maps can be seen by anyone having access to the internet and
presentation of performances on the map will help one to know how performances in
terms of any indicators, which vary across the districts within the division and across
blocks within every district. This system can help both the implementing officials and
the supervising officials to judge performances and design interventions for
improvement in implementation of the SBM. An analysis of progresses made is shared
with all the CEOs of the ZPs and the supervising officials in the form of Fact Sheet every
month. Hard copy of a thematic map to help visualization of the progress and to make a
comparative analysis is prepared and sent to CEOs to help reviewing the programme. A
copy of the Fact Sheet for March‟15 and a thematic map generated from the system are
enclosed herewith for better appreciation of the system.
Following activities have been done so far:
The MIS-GIS for monitoring the progress of SBA in Aurangabad Division was
developed and hosted in the server. The system analyses progress up to block level.
The system has a dashboard for viewing the reports, charts, etc. The system allows
making queries to generate maps.
Data related to implementation of the SBA for all the blocks within Aurangabad
division are collected from the M&E officials of the respective districts. The same is
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processed and fed in to the system for making both temporal and spatial analysis of
different performance parameters for knowing how those varied across districts and
blocks and across time for each of those units. The data fed are analysed by the
system to generate reports in various formats, for helping internalization of the
performances of different districts and blocks by all concerned.
A bottleneck analysis was carried out at district, block and village levels to identify
the factors on the ground which are impeding implementation of the sanitation
programme and the report brought out several policy issues which has helped the
Government of Maharashtra to know the ground realities for strengthening the
implementation process and they have already made some change of policy based
on the report.
The progress of access to household toilets through construction of individual
household latrines (IHHL) in the entire division is being analysed both district and
block wise every month by Riddhi Foundation. The analysis also covers the progress
across various social and economic groups. The findings are shared with the CEO
Zilla Parishads every month in the form of Fact Sheets, which cover progress in
both AIP and non-AIP GPs. The quarterly analysis were appropriately reflected in a
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thematic map which helps in visualizing the past performances and expected pace
of construction of IHHL to achieve the target of the SBA.
Facilitating Government of Maharashtra in finalising processes and outputs
indicators and protocols for monitoring performances at district and sub-district
levels. As a part of the project, several case studies have been developed for sharing
with the Government so that they get ideas about possible improvements of
implementation of SBA.
A PIP has been prepared for all the eight districts of the division and those have
been shared with the Government of Maharashtra.
5.3 Poverty Alleviation
(i) Geo-informatics Based Mapping and Monitoring of Rural Development
Programmes with Special Emphasis on MGNREGS of Wayanad District, Kerala
Partners: NIRD and Government of Kerala
MGNREGS is an important scheme for alleviation of rural poverty. The scheme provides
right to any family willing to work under the scheme to receive work for 100 days within
a year. The project involves development of two independent systems. (1) The first one
is developing a GIS for Grama Panchayath (GP) and Block wise thematic
representation of MGNREGS indicators and to make it accessible in the website for
analyzing performance of the MGNREGS within every GP and Block. This component
requires development of digital maps of all the Blocks and GPs of the district showing
revenue village boundaries, developing a web-enabled GIS and using the GIS and the
digital maps for presenting achievements on various indicators of the MGNREGS as
thematic maps on a spatial platform. Visual presentation on coloured thematic map
helps better internalization of relative performances of different implementing units,
which helps to take corrective measures for improving performance on each important
indicator related to implementation of the scheme.
(2) The second component is technically more challenging in capturing geo-
stamped photographs of all the assets and porting those in the GIS so that anyone
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can identify exact location and nature of assets created and can also view the important
attributes of the assets created. This is a completely different system, which uses
mobile phone with Android operating system, for capturing picture along with latitude
and longitude of the place where the asset is located and the time when the photograph
was taken.
Riddhi Foundation has developed a system for monitoring of the scheme up to GP level,
capturing photographs and other attributes of all the assets and uploading those in the
web-enabled system for everyone to see and validate the claims of the implementing
agencies. Capturing of assets is done using android-run mobile phone and the
photographs are geo-stamped for knowing exact geographic location of the assets
created. The system is being piloted in Wayanad district of Kerala and is set to improve
effectiveness and efficiency of implementation of the scheme. This is expected to be
replicated in other districts within and outside Kerala in due course.
6. Future Initiatives/Upcoming Activities
6.1 WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene)
Riddhi Foundation as Principal Key Resource Centre for SBM (Partner WSSO)
In order to strengthen the implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in rural
areas, the Water Supply & Sanitation Organization (WSSO) under the Department of
Water Supply and Sanitation, Government of Maharashtra has identified Riddhi
Foundation as the Principal Key Resource Centre for monitoring and evaluation of
SBM(G).
Riddhi Foundation has been awarded the task of compiling and analysing block wise
performances of SBM (G) at the end of each quarter and preparation and printing of
thematic maps to reflect performances for all the rural districts of the state of
Maharashtra (except Aurangabad Division for which Riddhi Foundation is doing similar
works with support from UNICEF) for the year 2015-16, which will be continued till the
year 2019-20. The analysis and the maps will be shared with the district, division and
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state level officials at the end of each quarter to act as a decision support tool for
strengthening implementation of the SBM (G) in the state.
Step Towards Swachh Bharat: A Country-wise Quarterly Performance Analysis
Partner: UNICEF, New Delhi
Achieving Swachh Bharat by the 2nd October 2019 is one of the important goals of the
country, which is being actively pursued by the Government of India and all the State
Governments through implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). The
commitment at the central and state levels are in the process of being translated into
action with all seriousness for making the country open defecation free (ODF). UNICEF
provides support to the Government of Maharashtra through Riddhi Foundation, its
partner organization, to analyse Block-wise performance under the SBM(G) for the
Aurangabad Division of the state. There is a strong need for taking up similar analysis
for the entire country. Analysis of the available data, if done even for district level, can
give much better insight on implementation of the programme and thereby paying due
attention to different needs of individual districts.
UNICEF has been a key partner of the Governments at the Union and State levels for
facilitating access to sanitation and reaching ODF status because of its immense
impact on survival and growth of the children. It is already extending support to fifteen
states, all major ones and comprising of the bulk of the Indian population, to promote
sanitation. In a meeting with the Secretary, Department of Drinking Water Supply and
Sanitation the Union Secretary desired that such analyses for all the 29 States will be
very helpful to the Department as well as the State Governments.
The analysis will be on a quarterly basis, based on data uploaded in the website of the
MDWS. The status as on the 15th of the month following the quarter, by which date the
report for the previous month is frozen, will be downloaded District-wise and will be
analysed by Riddhi Foundation, which has very good expertise in this field. The work in
each quarter will involve downloading data for around 630 districts, compiling and
analysing the data for bringing out the salient features of programme implementation,
which will guide the implementing officials to internalize the various aspects of
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performance under SBM(G) and to ultimately guide them for improving performances.
There will be total 29 different District-wise analyses, one for each State and another
State-wise analysis for the country as a whole, using the data. The deliverables will be
Fact Sheets, which will highlight the findings from the analyses for easier
internalization of the data.
6.2 Nutrition
Monitoring nutrition status of all under-5 children of Dhalai and West Tripura
Districts of Tripura State
Partner: Education Department (Social Welfare and Social Education) of
Government of Tripura
Riddhi Foundation has been entrusted by Education (Social Welfare and Social
Education) Department of Government of Tripura, with the responsibility to develop
a system to monitor all three indicators viz. weight for age, weight for height and height
for age (underweight, wasting and stunting respectively) for children up to six years.
The project is to be implemented in six ICDS Projects of Dhalai and eight ICDS Projects
of West Tripura District of Tripura. The project is an extension of the existing Nutrition
Surveillance System and will run independently so that the same can be easily
replicated for application in other districts. The new system will help the frontline
service providers of ICDS, like the Anganwadi Workers and Supervisors to monitor the
nutrition status of the children and initiate corrective action with little loss of time. The
proposed system, to be called „Jatak‟, will be a simple web-enabled system for growth
monitoring of children with least effort by entering weight and height of each child every
month.
Continuation of Current Interventions in Attappadi Block and Piloting in
Mananthavadi Block of Kerala
Partner: UNICEF & Govt. of Kerala
In a meeting held at Trivandrum on the 6th January 2015, it has been felt that the
initiative has been effective in reducing child mortality and incidence of malnutrition
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and the same should be sustained to consolidate the existing interventions and to take
up some of the activities which could not be fully grounded as well as to introduce some
new activities for improving child survival and growth of children of the block.
Similar initiatives are to be taken in other blocks having high share of tribal population
Mananthavadi block of Wayanad district is one such block where the project is
proposed to be replicated. The project will be implemented with support of Riddhi
Foundation, which provides technical support for Attappady and UNICEF is expected to
continue as partner in the proposed project.
6.3 Research
Assessing the Socio-Economic Condition of the Jute Mill Workers & Their
Family Members
Partner: National Jute Board
National Jute Board (NJB)] has engaged Riddhi Foundation for assessing the Socio-
Economic condition of the Jute Mill workers & their family members. The objective of
the proposed study is to have comprehensive knowledge about the socioeconomic
status of the jute mill workers and their dependents, to make appropriate policy
decisions aimed at taking further welfare measures as well as in improving their
productivity. The study will bring out various demographic aspects of the jute mill
workers, access to basic civic and various socio-economic services from the municipal,
the state and the union governments and the barriers they are facing in improving their
quality of life within the given social and economic context in which they are living at
present. The study will bring out the gaps in receiving due services and availing of
existing opportunities by the jute mill workers and their family members due to supply
and/or demand side failures as well as the reasons behind such failures so that the
findings help in prescribing the possible improvement of their wellbeing and making
appropriate interventions.
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7. Financial Statistics
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8. Photo Gallery
Dr. Roy in conversation with
the RMO and PRO at
Attappady
The JPHNs attending a
meeting at Attappady
Field visit to Attappady
Group Discussion with
SHGs at Jalna,
Maharashtra
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Field visit to Zalta,
Maharashtra
Field visit to Patoda,
Maharashtra
Meeting with State
officials at Maharashtra
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